AbdicatioN

ABDICATION (Lat. abdicatio, disowning, renouncing, 
from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as 
not belonging to one), the act whereby a person in office 
renounces and gives up the same before the expiry of the time 
for which it is held.  In Roman law, the term is especially 
applied to the disowning of a member of a family, as the 
disinheriting of a son, but the word is seldom used except 
in the sense of surrendering the supreme power in a state.  
Despotic sovereigns are at liberty to divest themselves of 
their powers at any time, but it is otherwise with a limited 
monarchy.  The throne of Great Britain cannot be lawfully 
abdicated unless with the consent of the two Houses of 
Parliament.  When James II., after throwing the great 
seal into the Thames, fled to France in 1688, he did not 
formally resign the crown, and the question was discussed 
in parliament whether he had forfeited the throne or had 
abdicated.  The latter designation was agreed on, for in a 
full assembly of the Lords and Commons, met in convention, 
it was resolved, in spite of James's protest, ``that King 
James II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of 
the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king 
and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked 
persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having 
withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the 
government, and that the throne is thereby vacant.'' The 
Scottish parliament pronounced a decree of forfeiture and 
deposition.  Among the most memorable abdications of 
antiquity may be mentioned that of Sulla the dictator, 79 
B.C., and that of the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 305. The 
following is a list of the more important abdications of later 

 
                                                      A.D.
 Benedict IX., pope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048
 Stephen II. of Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
 Albert (the Bear) of Brandenburg . . . . . . . . . . 1169
 Ladislaus III. of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206
 Celestine V., pope . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dec. 13, 1294
 John Baliol of Scotland  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296
 John Cantacuzene, emperor of the East  . . . . . . . 1355
 Richard II. of England . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 29, 1399
 John XXIII., pope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
 Eric VII; of Denmark and XIII. of Sweden . . . . . . 1439
 Murad II., Ottoman Sultan  . . . . . . . . .1444 and 1445
 Charles V., emperor  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1556
 Christina of Sweden  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1654
 John Casimir of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1618
 James II. of England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1688
 Frederick Augustus of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . 1704
 Philip V. of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1724
 Victor Amadeus II. of Sardinia . . . . . . . . . . . 1730
 Ahmed III., Sultan of Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . 1730
 Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain). 1759
 Stanislaus II. of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1795
 Charles Emanuel IV. of Sardinia  . . . . . . June 4, 1802
 Charles IV. of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . .Mar. 19, 1808
 Joseph Bonaparte of Naples . . . . . . . . . June 6, 1808
 Gustavus IV. of Sweden . . . . . . . . . . .Mar. 29, 1809
 Louis Bonaparte of Holland . . . . . . . . . July 2, 1810
 Napoleon I., French Emperor. . . . . . . . .April 4, 1814, and June 22, 1815
 Victor Emanuel of Sardinia . . . . . . . . .Mar. 13, 1821
 Charles X. of France . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 2, 1830
 Pedro of Brazil 1 . . . . . . . . . . . .April 7, 1831
 Miguel of Portgual . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 26, 1834
 William I. of Holland  . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 7, 1840
 Louis Philippe, king of the French . . . . .Feb. 24, 1848
 Louis Charles of Bavaria . . . . . . . . . .Mar. 21, 1848
 Ferdinand of Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 2, 1848
 Charles Albert of Sardinia . . . . . . . . .Mar. 23, 1849
 Leopold II. of Tuscany . . . . . . . . . . .July 21, 1859
 Isabella II. of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . June 25, 1870
 Amadeus I. of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 11, 1873
 Alexander of Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 7, 1886
 Milan of Servia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mar. 6, 1889
 

1 Pedro had succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 
1826, but abdicated it at once in favour of his daughter. 

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Source:  An unnamed encyclopedia from a project that puts out-of-copyright texts into the public domain.  This is from a *very* old source, and reflects the thinking of the turn of the last century.  -- BryceHarrington